Sunday, April 26, 2009

First Asparagus

A farmer at the Canton Farmers Market had asparagus today. We will evaluate tomorrow at dinner, but how exciting! First asparagus of the year!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Easter Weekend

Having a long weekend is always nice, but was especially so as we started Friday night having beers at The Old Town Tavern in Ann Arbor (Two Hearted Ale on tap - nice!) before the Ryan Montbleau concert at the Ark. I was intrigued by the food passing me by - next time we will eat as well as drink. Visit Old Town:

http://www.oldtownaa.com/


Then on to The Ark to see The Ryan Montbleau Band - they were tremendous! Great show. The warm up act was Zach Deputy and all I can say is WOW! Great stuff! We bought his cd and two from Ryan Montbleau. The Ryan Montbleau Band is tight and their songs are funky and folky all at the same time. Zach Deputy is more reggae but oh so good! Check both acts out:

http://www.ryanmontbleauband.com/


http://www.zachdeputy.com/

On another positive note, the coney dog heaven of Bill's on Michigan Avenue in Ypsi has opened for the season. YUM YUM YUM! Don't forget the root beer!

We took advantage of the long weekend to have breakfast at Angelo's in A2. As always, the raisin bread french toast is amazing, the bacon perfect and my perennial dining companion's lox eggs benedict exceptional (the hollandaise is very good). Visit Angelo's:

http://www.angelosa2.com/home.htm


The other highlight of the weekend (besides seeing the family at our house for Easter dinner) was Drop In hockey Saturday night at Suburban Ice. Awesome workout and great hockey fun!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

First Weekend in April

What a great weekend! It really started on Thursday, because we bought tickets a little bit last minute to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra playing at Hill in A2. It was a great show and the conductor, David Robertson, connected well with the audience and was highly energized. I had never heard anything by the composer John Adams performed live before and the orchestra executed it tremendously.

http://www.ums.org/S_current_season/artist.asp?pageid=499


But the best part about seeing a show in Ann Arbor might be eating out before hand. At least in part to simplify parking, we visited Ashley's on campus for the first time. A plus, Bell's Two Hearted Ale on tap! My perennial dining companion had a sampler (of which I really liked the Old Speckled Hen). I ordered the Thai Chicken Quesadilla (yum, peanut sauce) which was really good and and my PDC had an excellent burger and we split some Stilton-enhanced fries. Wow. Way too much food but it was all so good! Next time we just split the fries. Ironically, we were some of the oldest folks in the establishment, but the tunes were all our high school years - Michael Jackson, Huey Lewis and the News, etc. We will be back:

http://www.ashleys.com/index.html

Friday night was my 41st birthday and we celebrated by playing racquetball at Lifetime and then grilling out bleu cheese burgers at home (topped with sauted onions and mushrooms). Good stuff! Who says you can't grill out in Michigan in early April!

Saturday we were back in Ann Arbor twice. First, to visit the Farmer's Market (greens, radishes, eggs, Empire Apples and some beets). Then, later, back to Hill Auditorium to listen to the amazing Chick Corea and John McLaughlin and crew (the awesome in their own right Christian McBride on bass, Brian Blades on drums, and Kenny Garret on saxophone) rocked the house. We didn't eat out though. I made chickpea cauliflower curry over jasmine rice (the recipe suggested basmati but I like jasmine better for something like this)....

http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/fasteasyfresh/2009/05/curried_cauliflower_and_chickpea_stew